Yao was born to accomplished basketball-playing parents who each stood more than 6 feet (1.8 metres) tall. From an early age Yao towered over his classmates. By the time he was 12 years old, he was attending a local sports academy and practicing basketball several hours a day. In 1997 he joined the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). By the time he led the Chinese team to a respectable 10th-place finish at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Yao had become a national icon.

The 7-foot 6-inch (2.29-metre) Yao was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft. In the 2002–03 season he was voted by fans to start for the Western Conference in the All-Star Game and was a unanimous selection to the league’s All-Rookie team. Although the Rockets narrowly missed making the NBA play-offs in 2003, Yao helped lead the team to a 43–39 record—an impressive turnaround from the Rockets’ 28–54 record just one season earlier. With his soft shooting touch and deft passing ability, Yao earned all-star honours in each of the following six seasons and helped the Rockets to play-off appearances in five of those years (2004, 2005, and 2007–09). However, he suffered a series of broken bones in his legs and feet over the course of his first seven years with the Rockets, and his 2008–09 season ended during the play-offs as the result of a broken foot, which then failed to heal properly. He underwent surgery during the following off-season, but the damage was so severe that he missed the entire 2009–10 NBA season. Yao returned for five games at the start of the 2010–11 season before suffering a stress fracture in his ankle, and he was sidelined for the remainder of the season. The injury-plagued Yao retired from professional basketball in July 2011. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. The following year he became the president of the CBA, having served as president and owner of the CBA’s Shanghai Sharks franchise since 2009.

Yao’s impact on basketball culture extended far past his on-court accomplishments. He drew large crowds wherever the Rockets played, and Houston games were broadcast to huge audiences in China and other Asian countries. A media favourite, Yao was a pitchman for numerous companies and was the focus of the NBA’s efforts to popularize the league around the globe.